Spring break in New Orleans

[Guest guest]

Spring break in New Orleans

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Gazette.Net

land Community Newspaper Online

Reynolds

My Opinion

(http://rotator.adjuggler.com/servlet/ajrotator/104357/0/clickCGI?zone=gazette)

I headed to New Orleans aware that I would find destruction. I was spending

my spring break gutting houses, which basically means taking all possessions

out of the house under a fallen ceiling, knocking down the sheet rock and

taking out the carpet, leaving the house a skeleton of its former self, but

ready for safe rebuilding.

I knew I would be working with a respirator and a Tyvek suit in the toxic

mold that now envelops much of the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish. I knew I

would meet people much different than me, people who struggled every day to

find food to put on the table, people who felt as if their whole lives were

over because of the loss of all their material possessions, people angry at the

government and at the existing racism in their Southern city.

I had no idea I would be entering a city that six months later looks like one

of the biggest natural disasters to hit the United States just occurred.

Walking down streets around where I was living in a gutted-out church in St.

Bernard Parish, it was chaos. Houses still sat in the middle of the streets on

top of cars, power lines were strewn across streets and intersections, traffic

lights were not working for miles, schools were shut down and there was no

effort to work on them, stores were completely empty.

The few houses that had been gutted already had trash as high as the house

still sitting on the front lawn and protruding into the street. High winds

constantly blew the trash around. There were a few Federal Emergency Management

Agency trailers, but walking around the streets found people lamenting how

they were ‘‘still waiting.â€

I couldn’t believe my eyes. How could the government not have done anything?

How could they not have re-opened schools? How could the rest of the city

keep on functioning as normal when there was such destruction two miles down

the

road? How could the largest relief effort be a grassroots organization with

college students with no experience or particular talent?

It just doesn’t make sense.

Every story was striking in some way. We were sent to one house after the son

of the owner, who had been gutting his house, was sent to the hospital

coughing up blood from breathing without a respirator.

One couple asked for the oranges from our lunches and the next day came by

our community living area to eat lunch. They were ‘‘lucky.†They had been

delivered a FEMA trailer. But inside it was bare because they had no possessions

and no money to buy food.

I used the cramped bathroom inside the trailer and the wife said, ‘‘You’re

welcome to anything inside, honey!â€

I couldn’t believe that a woman so destitute and beaten down still had such

warmth in her heart and I admired her. It was hard for these people to see all

of their possessions lying on their front lawn, waiting for a Dumpster.

Some streets were more active than others, with families all down the way

gutting out houses. These were the streets we liked to see. But it’s hard to

think what will happen in the long run, when the children of these households,

if they are even in school at all, are going to schools farther away as theirs

are still closed.

The only government presence I saw was the Environmental Protection Agency

contractors driving around handing us sheets of paper saying they couldn’t

pick

up bodily fluids, rotted food and anything affected by mold. Mind you,

everything is affected by mold.

Many are hopeful and optimistic for the future. They want to rebuild their

homes and recreate the community they loved. They’re trying hard to do this

all

on their own. Even if people aren’t willing to give money or time to the

cause, at least I hope people can be aware of what’s going on — aware that

while much of the media focuses on democratizing Iraq, people in New Orleans

are

fighting a battle every day.

Walking down the streets in St. Bernard Parish looks and feels like a war

zone.

I was astounded at the number of college students and people in their 20s who

worked there full time. People like me giving up their spring break to work

in the heat and muck to do a very small, but important, part of the relief

effort. I was proud to be among my generation in which so many people are

inspired and dedicated. At the same time, I was ashamed of my government and

the

lack of response to what has happened.

With the entire Gulf Coast affected and over 275,000 homes destroyed in New

Orleans alone, this ought to be a place where the federal government comes in

and an organization besides the embarrassing FEMA helps out. I want a better

place for my fellow citizens to reside in and a democracy that responds to

the people’s opinions.

This experience made me realize — and never be able to forget — what is

going on in the Gulf Coast and I hope that anyone who reads this won’t forget

either.

, a resident of Potomac, is a freshman at College and a 2005

graduate of the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda.